[Kabar-indonesia] 'Tommy' Suhartos Release Puts Justice System Back in the Dock

[Joyo at aol.com]

The South China Morning Post [HK]
Monday, November 6, 2006

'Tommy' Suharto’s Release Puts Justice System Back in the
Dock

Corrupt officials have allowed the youngest son of
Indonesia’s former dictator to lead a charmed life, even in
prison, writes Fabio Scarpello

In Indonesia, it would seem that if your surname is Suharto,
you can literally get away with murder. The latest evidence
is Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra Suharto, 44, the former
dictator’s youngest son who walked out of jail on Monday,
five years after he was sentenced to 15 years for ordering
the killing of Supreme Court judge Syafiuddin Kartasasmita,
who was shot dead in broad daylight in July 2001.

In September 2000, Syafiuddin had dared to sentence Mr
Hutomo to 18 months in jail for defrauding the state of
US$10.7 million by swapping a tract of marshy land for a
prime site belonging to the National Logistics Agency.
According to the testimony of Mr Hutomo’s former wife,
Ardhia Pramesti Regita Cahyani, the judge had previously
made the mistake of turning down a US$20,000 bribe and
ignoring threats of violence.

The first member of the Suharto family to have been
convicted for corruption fled before starting his sentence,
and the killing of the judge took place while he was a
fugitive. After a year on the run, he was arrested and put
on trial.

When in September 2002 he was sentenced to 15 years behind
bars for Syafiuddin’s murder, many thought justice had been
served and Indonesia was on the right track. But from the
initial sentence to the opening of the doors of Cipinang
prison last Monday, Mr Hutomo’s affair with the Indonesian
legal system has shown that the country’s justice is still
too arbitrary to be trusted, and the Suharto family is still
too hot to be handled.

In the first place, although Indonesia’s criminal code
mandates a life sentence or death penalty for anyone
convicted of arranging murder, Mr Hutomo’s sentence was
inexplicably reduced to 10 years by the Supreme Court.

Then, helping him along the way to freedom was Indonesia’s
generous – and very subjective – remissions system, under
which sentences can be cut on such occasions as National Day
or the end of the Islamic Holy month of Ramadan. In total,
he saw 31 months shaved off his sentence for good behaviour.

After all the maths, it works out that Mr Hutomo has served
two-thirds of his sentence, which makes him eligible to be
released on parole “under the supervision of his family”, as
a prison official has been quoted as saying.

However, this family reunion has angered activists and
depressed analysts, who considered the case a test for
Indonesia’s Reformasi, as the post-Suharto renewal movement
was called. A test, they say, the country has failed
miserably. “It is a disaster. For Reformasi, this is as bad
as it gets,” said Wimar Witoelar, spokesman of former
president Abdurrahman Wahid.

“It is a manifestation of what has been going wrong and what
is still wrong. Bad guys are resourceful, they have funds,
they have friends – and they always find a way out,” he
added.

That Mr Hutomo has money and powerful friends is a well-
known fact that he openly displays.

According to a Time magazine investigation, during his
father’s 32-year regime from 1966 to 1998, the Cendana – as
the family is collectively known – gained money and assets
worth US$73.24 billion. Mr Hutomo’s slice of the pie was
estimated at US$800 million.

During this period, all Indonesia’s powerful men were part
of the Cendana’s inner circle, and while millions of
Indonesians struggled just to get food, Mr Hutomo flaunted
his wealth, leading a life of excesses that included a
string of fancy cars, high-profile flings with beauty queens
and actresses, and frequent trips around the world.

His connections with the powerful continued after the fall
of his father’s regime and were shamelessly flaunted even
during his brush with justice.

It started the day he was arrested, which was rather
farcical. Although he had been a fugitive for a year, it was
not the police who appeared before the press, but a relaxed
and handcuff-less Mr Hutomo, who was warmly embraced by
Jakarta’s then-police chief, Sofjan Jacoeb.

It continued during the trial. Activists remember with
horror how when presiding judge Amiruddin Zakaria asked:
“Were you often at your own home on Jalan Cendana?” Mr
Hutomo answered: “Yes, I was often there.” And when a
flabbergasted Judge Zakaria exclaimed: “Oh my God! But you
never got caught, did you?” Mr Hutomo explained “there was
co-ordination with the apparatus”.

He was also treated with kid gloves in prison, where he
enjoyed a far more luxurious cell than those of his roughly
2,500 fellow prisoners, some of whom once threatened to
sodomise him.

It was reported that his cell was completely fenced off from
the other inmates. It included a private bathroom, a large
television, cell phones and air-conditioning, which created
conducive conditions for his frequent five-hour conjugal
visits. That stopped in September, when a Jakarta court
granted his wife her request for divorce and custody of
their two children. It also seems fairly certain that he
oiled the wheels to get the remissions, as suggested by
Jakarta Legal Institute director Asifinawati, who, like many
Indonesians, has only one name.

“He paid people to get remissions. It is common knowledge
that our detention system is corrupt. If you check the
remissions of corruptors, sometimes they even go over the
legally allowed [limit]. They break the law,” she said.
“It also shows that there is discrimination. I doubt a
peasant would have got all those months wiped off his
sentence.” Yuntho Emerson, head of Indonesia Corruption
Watch’s law division, agreed. “It shows an obvious pattern
of corruption. You can either bribe the judge to lower your
sentences or you can bribe the prison chief to be released
earlier. Or you can do both,” he said.

“This case will set another bad precedent. The unusually
high remissions and the easy manner in which they are
obtained mean that corrupters will not be scared to commit
crimes, as they know they can get away with it.

“Law enforcement is a key indicator of Reformasi and it
would seem that the objectives of the movement are still
very far away,” he added.

Mr Hutomo’s case follows the dropping of the corruption case
against his father. The former dictator, who was accused of
having embezzled a minimum of US$600 million, was let off
the hook on very debatable medical grounds last May.

It also follows the discharge in October of Pollycarpus
Priyanto, the only person charged for the murder of
Indonesia’s foremost human rights activist, Munir Said
Thalib, who was poisoned aboard a Garuda flight to Amsterdam
in September 2004.

Munir’s work was primarily aimed at exposing corruption and
illegal activities committed by the military, another
institution considered “untouchable” in Indonesia. Reformers
believe that top military officials were behind the murder.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered new
investigations into the Munir murder case and has legislated
to limit the remissions. According to the new law – which
should come into force next January – corrupters, drug
dealers and terrorists will have to serve at least a third
of their sentences before being eligible for discounts.

However, Mrs Asifinawati believes that the president’s legal
move will prove to be insufficient.

“Those guilty of certain crimes, like corruption, should not
get any remission; that is the only way to eradicate this
cancer,” she said, adding that Indonesia was consistently
rated among the world’s most corrupt countries.

Mr Witoelar, on the other hand, wished Dr Susilo more
courage and a place in history.

“It is a shame that Yudhoyono is so cautious. He has a huge
people mandate. He is a clean former general who has nothing
to hide. He should take a stand in cases like these,” he
said.

“In the short term, this would create him problems as
Suharto’s money is still around and the former dictator is
still very influential. But in the long term, his stand
would ensure him a place in history.”

sidebar: “Mr Hutomo’s affair with the Indonesian legal
system has shown that the country’s justice is still too
arbitrary to be trusted, and the Suharto family is still too
hot to be handled”

------------------------------------------
Joyo Indonesia News Service
------------------------------------------